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From Mrs. S.S. Walter from Horton, Kansas, May 20, 1915— Dear Editor: I shall endeavor to write you a short letter through the columns of the Telegraph while on my visit in Kansas with my sister and family, whom I have not seen for ten years. I left Mifflinburg April 13, on the 2:10 p.m. train and arrived at Tyrone at 6 p.m. boarded the 10.21 through train through for Chicago, which brought me to that city at 5 p.m. the next day, was transferred from the Union Station to the Rock Island. Left at 6 p.m. and came into St. Joseph, Missouri the next morning at 8:45 to be told that the train for Horton (my destination) had left 45 minutes before, which necessitated a wait of seven hours in St. Joseph. Nevertheless I came into Horton at 5:30 Thursday evening, my sister and niece being at the station to receive me and conduct me to their home. On the train from Tyrone to Chicago a woman (Jewish) occupied the seat in front of me. During that time I came in conversation with her, she told me she had been in this country only three weeks. Had come from London to New York, then on to Chicago to find her husband who had come three years before and was in the clothing business in that city and living in bigamy, under an assumed name, her object being to make him support her. I told her I would not follow a husband that distance, but just get busy and support yourself. She looked at me, not knowing what to reply. Horton is a city of about 4,000 population and covers about 12 times the area of Mifflinburg does. They certainly did not save ground space when they laid out these western towns. The streets are wide, houses all set back, and marked all the way, and paved streets nearly over the whole city, also several blocks of the white way lights. Three of the denominations are re-building their churches this summer. Ground has also been broken for a $70,000 high school. The car shops have taken on several hundred men this spring. Many houses are of the bungalow stile, of five rooms. They looked odd at first to me, but one gets used to them. There are also many two-story ones. About 30% of the population is Catholic. I have seen many pretty farmhouses here in the country, while passing on the train. On most every farm you see a straw stack in the fields often where the cattle have been sheltered during the past winter, and sometimes sheds in connection with the stacks. The cattle and horses shelters thus are mostly rough looking. There are many automobiles here in both city and country, but I have seen more Fords. The Fords are used in the delivery service in both St. Joseph and Topeka. There being no Lutheran Church here my sister and family attend the Methodist. Last Sunday evening the warden from Leavenworth state prison gave an address in the Methodist Church. He said there were three prisons in Leavenworth County— state, federal, and military, and sometimes when he studied the situation he thought there should be three more. In the state prison there are 823 prisoners, of whom 39 are women. He told the women that if any of their husbands got gay, they should just throw them up to them. Here in the Methodist Church they have an orchestra and a choir of 50 voices. Last week I spent several days in the Capitol City, Topeka, attending the State Grand Chapter of the Eastern star which was held in Representative Hall, where every seat was filled and in the gallery, all interested in the work of the O.E.S. The rotunda in the capitol, and Representative Hall, the stores and the city all decorated with the colors and pennants of the Eastern Star. “The Scottish Rites” furnished a free lunch and dinner in Masonic Hall, both Thursday and Friday seating 750 in their dining room at one time of which the seats were all filled and 200 more for the second serving. We were served beautifully, the Eastern Star Orchestra furnishing music while we ate. While there I met and spoke to many but not one did I find or hear of being from the Keystone State. It made me feel almost like an alien in a foreign land. Several weeks ago sister and I spent a few days in Sabetha. That is a beautiful town of about 2,500 population with wide paved streets and a park in the center of the city. Kind friends took us over the city in their car. We also visited the stores and banks, library and the First Congregational Church of which Rev. Beaver is pastor. We enjoyed our visit there very much and I shall always remember it as the White City, because the homes there with a few exceptions were all painted white. Sister and I also spent a few days in Effingham. We took a walk over part of the town the afternoon we came; but the next day it rained and blew and was generally disagreeable, and the black Kansas mud stuck on my shoes and the crossings looked anything but inviting to cross without rubbers. The country here is not level, as I thought it was, but very rolling, with short bushy trees, which are not useful for lumber. Soft coal is used here almost altogether, the hard coal being too expensive. The ground is black and very productive. I saw many fields that were larger than the farm we lived on at New Berlin. One sees horses, cattle, calves and pigs in pasture everywhere. Coming through Missouri I noticed so many small farmhouses and dilapidated outbuildings with a cow tethered near, the whole making a very unsightly appearance. I decided at once that I would not stay at that place. The Horton High School will hold their commencement exercises next Thursday evening, 31 students in the class, my niece being among them. It takes 12 years to complete the work, my niece not missing one day during that time. The course includes Domestic Science and sewing for girls, four years of manual training for boys. Also a Teacher’s Training class by which receiving a diploma enables them to teach anywhere in the state. Last Saturday evening in the City Hall there was an exhibition of the boy’s manual training work that they had completed, consisting of dining room and Morris chairs and library tables, bookcases, pedestals, etc. Needlework and crochet and embroidered towels, done by the girls in the 7th grade were also displayed. The people are very sociable and I have enjoyed my visit among them more than I can express. Kansas does not grow as many bald headed men as Pennsylvania does. I will leave on the 28th for a trip to Ohio and then head to Pennsylvania. —Mrs. Scott S. Walter © Copyright 2010 by Mifflinburg Telegraph Weekly Newspaper Top of Page |
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